SoxandPhils revelations

After yesterday's wrestling snafu, Todd Zolecki redeemed himself with today's post.

Nothing has consistently driven traffic to our humble SoxandPhils blog like people looking for the names of players' intro songs - especially Jayson Werth.

Today, Zolecki listed every Phillies' intro song. We couldn't place our finger on J-Dub's current song all season. Thanks to Zo, we know now it's Right Above It by Lil Wayne. We've also been fascinated by how Carlos Ruiz uses Phil Collins' In The Air Tonight, but we didn't know that his backup, Brian Schneider, uses the same song.

Zolecki still needs to work on his knowledge of wrestling history, but I certainly appreciate this effort.

That wasn't the only SoxandPhils theme in the news today. We've often discussed how injured both teams were this year. SoxandPhils beat writer Scott Lauber takes a look at how the Red Sox are home licking their wounds, while their brothers in pain have survived.

Even our general managers felt a kinship:

At one point during the summer, Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein and his Phillies counterpart, Ruben Amaro Jr., even had a phone conversation in which they commiserated over their teams’ respective misfortune.

"We were having some trade dialogue," Amaro recalled yesterday, "and I guess we were both woe-is-me-ing for a while."

I wonder what they were talking about ... Werth for Jonathan Papelbon, perhaps? {Ugh, the idea of Papelbon as a Phillie ... awful.}

If you're interested, Lauber has a sidebar listing every injury suffered by a Red Sox or Phillie.

A little hand for the newest SoxandPhil

A month ago, we wished SoxandPhil Heathcliff Slocumb a happy birthday. Little did we know then that our son was born that day.

Trent was born on June 7. He came home today and is already showing signs of being a SoxandPhil.

I read him his first book - a baby Red Sox primer. He knows that the Phanatic is a better mascot than Wally, his favorite lullaby is Take Me Out to the Ballgame and, of course, he knows the Yankees are bad.

We figure he'll be starting for the Red Sox or Phillies in 2033. He has soft hands and is little (so far), so he'll probably be a second baseman. But he won't be pressured.

I know the posts have sucked the past two weeks as we prepared for Trent to enter our family. I don't think raising a newborn will allow us to devote more time to the blog, but we should have some interesting stories to tell.

And, we're already being responsible. We gave away tickets we had for Sunday's Phillies game against the Reds. We're undecided whether Trent will be ready for his first game next month. Probably not.

Today's game: Trent inspired the Phillies to a 4-3 win over the Reds in the 12th on a Brian Schneider home run. The Sox and Phils are undefeated since Trent came home.

More hurtin' SoxandPhils

The SoxandPhils injury bug is reaching epidemic proportions. Off the top of my head: Dustin Pedroia, Chase Utley, Ryan Madson, J.A. Happ, Clay Buchholz, Victor Martinez, Josh Beckett, Jacoby Ellsbury, Placido Polanco and Carlos Ruiz are all injured.

Now, Manny Delcarmen has hit the DL. And, Utley's injury is worse than expected: He's gone for eight weeks. And, Ruiz is still showing concussion symptoms. And now, Brian Schneider left tonight's game with a hand injury. At least Dustin Pedroia is not taking his injury sitting down, or standing up.

Not content to sit on his duff, he took grounders on his knees:

"I'm just keeping my [expletive] ready," Pedroia said. "That's all I've got for you. I've just got to keep my arm in shape."

Pedroia — amused that he was at the center of media attention yesterday — clearly cannot stand to be on the disabled list. So, while being driven around in carts, the second baseman is doing all he can to remain sharp, even though he is unlikely to be back for six weeks.

"I'm pretty bored," Pedroia said. "There's not really a lot to do for me right now. I really don't do much. I just sit down, lift weights sitting down. That's about it."

I love the spirit, but won't be happy when we learn about how someone can cause serious injury by taking grounders on their knees.

Tonight's games: The Red Sox are off. The Phillies lost to the Pirates 3-2. Christine is fearing a four-game sweep.

Game of the year

I know we're just a sixth of the way through the season and April games are often forgotten in the long run, but this one might have staying power.

I was anxious for the matchup of Cole Hamels and Tim Lincecum after reading all the game stories contrasting the careers of the young pitchers. This passage stuck in my head all day:

Once upon a time, people thought Cole Hamels would enter 2010 coming off back-to-back Cy Young victories. His opponent today, Giants righthander Tim Lincecum, has that honor.

Matt Gelb remembered that Lincecum made his major league debut against Hamels in 2007, although the game was in San Francisco, not Philadelphia, as Gelb reported. (I think Philadelphia newspaper reporters can be forgiven today for making an error like that.)

Anyway, I was looking forward to this game and was a little jealous when I first checked the score at work and saw a scoreless duel with just two hits for the Giants. Hamels scuffled a bit, giving up four runs in six innings, but each pitcher struck out more than 10, which hasn't happened since 2008, according to the Phillies announcers.

I listened to the game on the ride home. I knew the Phillies would win after the Giants yanked Lincecum, whose pitch count was a reasonable 106, after he walked a batter with one out in the 9th and a 4-1 lead.

The Phillies rallied against closer Brian Wilson, and when Ryan Howard walked to load the bases, I figured I had time to run inside to watch the next at-bat instead of sitting in my car like an idiot. When I got inside, Christine didn't have the game on - she got distracted and thought it was over because Daily News Live did a promo that seemed like the post-game show. She was surprised to see Jayson Werth battling with the bases loaded before dunking one down the right field line to clear the bases.

Ryan Madson, playing the role of Brad Lidge circa 2009, blew the save in the 10th inning, but the Phillies scored two more in the 11th, setting up Nelson Figueroa's first major league save. Of course, the real save came on a play at the plate in which Brian Schneider made an incredible swiping tag to prevent the potential game-tying run.

What a game. Phillies 7, Giants 6.

Red Sox: Brett Cecil and Jon Lester are trying to give a suitable encore to the Lincecum and Hamels show. They were scoreless until the 6th. Now, it's 1-0 Red Sox ahead of the Blue Jays. Welcome back, Jon.

Prospectin'

I still have Disney World on my brain. One of the nicest rides we had this weekend was on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We really had fun on that one - plus, there was no line so we pretty much walked right on.

The train is in Frontierland, which sets the mood for Baseball America releasing its list of top 100 prospects. I'm pleased with the SoxandPhils representation. I get just as proud with the organizational success of our teams as their on-field accomplishments.

The Phillies Domonic Brown (15) tops the SoxandPhils contingency, followed by the Red Sox quartet of Ryan Westmoreland (21), Casey Kelly (24), Josh Reddick (75) and Lars Anderson (87).

The Phillies also have Phillippe Aumont (93) on the list.

What's more impressive is that they had a decent showing on the list when each team has dealt away prospects in recent years. Former SoxandPhils farmhands include former future Phils Kyle Drabek (25), Michael Taylor (29), Jason Knapp (64) and Travis d’Arnaud (81), and former future Sox Nick Hagadone (44).

Not on the list is Brad Wilkerson, although he was ranked in 2001 (35) and 2002 (63) when he was an up-and-coming Expo. He was in Red Sox camp last year, but retired after two games in the minors. Now, he's with the Phillies. Christine thinks this line explains the move: Wilkerson is "a close friend of Phillies backup catcher Brian Schneider."

In my Baseball Mogul game, team happiness matters, and sometimes you have to acquire a player's friend to make him happy and improve team chemistry. We hope Brian Schneider is happy now.

[Photo credit: CoasterGallery.com]

Exit stage left

The news today pertains to the fates of two of the SoxandPhils' leading men who probably have played their last games for the good guys.

Contract negotiations between the Red Sox and All-Star Jason Bay have become strained. Meanwhile, the Phillies didn't offer a contract to Clay Condrey, star of The Pen, who was a valuable piece of the 2008 bullpen.

Obviously, Bay is the more important news. He did an admirable job replacing Manny Ramirez's steroid-boosted bat in left field and exhibited nothing but class during his year and a half with the Red Sox. I would love for his tenure to continue for a few more years, but he doesn't strike me as the uber-elite player we should overpay for.

Hopefully, he goes to the Mets and becomes another sunken cost for them. Christine is rooting for a completely random team, such as the Mariners, to sign him. My only hope is that the Yankees don't sign him. Ultimately, I don't think he'll make a major difference for them, but I just don't want to hear all the crap about yet another reason why the Empire is the class of baseball because they have money to burn.

Speaking of players who have switched teams, last night Christine and I saw what happens in real life when a player moves on. While knocking off some last-minute items for Christmas at a local wine store, I glanced over to the discount rack and saw a bottle with someone's face on it labeled Schneider.

"Who's Schneider?" I said loud enough that the clerk asked if we needed help.

Upon closer inspection, it was the Phillies new backup catcher, Brian Schneider, and his Schneider Schardonnay, which benefits kids' sports programs. But because the bottle was from his Mets days, it was reduced from $13.99 to $9.99. {Um, I think it's more likely that it was discounted because who wants to buy a bottle of Schneider Schardonnay, regardless of team?}

We should have bought it to see how it compares to Manny Being Merlot. {In retrospect, Manny Being Merlot tasted a little steroid-y.}

J-Roll may no longer be top SoxandPhils shortstop

It's no secret that the Red Sox have struggled to find a permanent shortstop since trading Nomar Garciappara for an elusive World Series Championship in 2004.

They've been through Orlando Cabrera, Edgar Renteria, Julio Lugo, Jed Lowrie and Alex Gonzalez twice. But now, a new name has surfaced: Dustin Pedroia.

While he's clearly the best second baseman in the league (American, I know Chase Utley is better), he is gung-ho about the possibility of shifting to short and intent on mastering the position.

In the true spirit of SoxandPhils, he isn't focused on Jimmy Rollins, but the overrated Derek Jeter:

"When the idea of moving back to shortstop was floated to me, I welcomed it," Pedroia says. "I'm excited. Tell Derek [Jeter] to enjoy the gold glove and silver slugger awards while he can. Obviously, I'm not serious about the fun I have with Derek, but I'm never stopping believing in the goal. I believe I can play shortstop and help get the Red Sox back where they belong."

I'm psyched. To quote one of our favorite movie titles: Bring it on. {Favorite movie title, not movie. Promise.}

Although, a Red Sox source told Nick Cafardo that this move would be a last resort:

While there has been internal discussions about Dustin Pedroia moving to shortstop it would not happen unless the Red Sox exhausted every avenue to acquire a shortstop through free-agency or trade, a team source said this afternoon.

The team is hesitant to give up draft picks for Type-A or Type-B free-agents like Marco Scutaro. And they do have Jed Lowrie to go to to if his wrist stays healthy. While Pedroia to short is an option, there's always great pause in moving such a tremendous second baseman to a different position. Suffice to say, a final decision on this subject is still in the distance.

Other news: A Philly sports icon is coming home. No, not yet Allen Iverson, but former Northampton High star Brian Schneider. I don't understand spending $1.5 million a year on a backup catcher when $5 million was considered too much for a starting third baseman.

Chris Wheeler should be happy. He's always had an admiration of Schneider that borders on creepy obsession. I hate Wheels. I miss being able to say I hate Wheels - well, not really because I really hate Wheels.

And it sounds like he won't be the only veteran coming to the Phillies. Ruben Amaro won't discuss specific players, but said John Smoltz fits the description of a player he would sign. Wink, wink.

Phinally: At last we know why the Phanatic doesn't do road games. It's not out of fear of entering enemy territory, nor respecting another team's house. He just doesn't want to pay the extra taxes.